The following abbreviations and terms are herewith defined, at least some of which are referred to within the following description of the present disclosure.    3GPP 3rd-Generation Partnership Project    ACK Acknowledge    AGCH Access Grant Channel    ASIC Application Specific Integrated Circuit    BLER Block Error Rate    BSS Base Station Subsystem    CC Coverage Class    EC Extended Coverage    eDRX Extended Discontinuous Receive Cycle    EC-AGCH Extended Coverage Access Grant Channel    EC-PCH Extended Coverage Paging Channel    DSP Digital Signal Processor    EDGE Enhanced Data rates for GSM Evolution    EGPRS Enhanced General Packet Radio Service    FAI Final Acknowledge Indicator    FDA Flexible Downlink Allocation    FN Frame Number    FUA Fixed Uplink Allocation    GSM Global System for Mobile Communications    GERAN GSM/EDGE Radio Access Network    GPRS General Packet Radio Service    HARQ Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request    IMSI International Mobile Subscriber Identity    IoT Internet of Things    LLC Logical Link Control    LTE Long-Term Evolution    MCS Modulation and Coding Scheme    MS Mobile Station    MTC Machine Type Communications    PCH Paging Channel    PDN Packet Data Network    PDTCH Packet Data Traffic Channel    PDU Protocol Data Unit    RACH Random Access Channel    RAN Radio Access Network    RAI Routing Area Identity    RAU Routing Area Update    RLC Radio Link Control    RRBP Relative Reserved Block Period    SGSN Serving GPRS Support Node    TDMA Time Division Multiple Access    TFI Temporary Flow Identity    TS Time Slot    TSC Training Sequence Code    TSG Technical Specifications Group    UE User Equipment    USF Uplink State Flag    WCDMA Wideband Code Division Multiple Access    WiMAX Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access
Coverage Class: At any point in time a device belongs to a specific uplink/downlink coverage class that corresponds to either the legacy radio interface performance attributes that serve as the reference coverage for legacy cell planning (e.g., a Block Error Rate of 10% after a single radio block transmission on the PDTCH) or a range of degraded radio interface performance attributes compared to the reference coverage (e.g., up to 20 dB less than the reference coverage). Coverage class determines the total number of blind transmissions to be used when transmitting/receiving radio blocks. An uplink/downlink coverage class applicable at any point in time can differ between different logical channels. Upon initiating a system access a device determines the uplink/downlink coverage class applicable to the RACH/AGCH based on estimating the number of blind transmissions of a radio block needed by the BSS receiver/device receiver to experience a BLER (block error rate) of approximately 10%. The BSS determines the uplink/downlink coverage class to be used by a device on the device's assigned packet channel resources based on estimating the number of blind transmissions of a radio block needed to satisfy a target BLER and considering the number of HARQ retransmissions (of a radio block) that will, on average, be required for successful reception of a radio block using that target BLER. Note: a device operating with radio interface performance attributes corresponding to the reference coverage is considered to be in the best coverage class (i.e., coverage class 1) and therefore does not make blind transmissions.
eDRX cycle: eDiscontinuous reception (eDRX) is a process of a wireless device disabling its ability to receive when it does not expect to receive incoming messages and enabling its ability to receive during a period of reachability when it anticipates the possibility of message reception. For eDRX to operate, the network coordinates with the wireless device regarding when instances of reachability are to occur. The wireless device will therefore wake-up and enable message reception only during pre-scheduled periods of reachability. This process reduces the power consumption which extends the battery life of the wireless device and is sometimes called (deep) sleep mode.
Nominal Paging Group: The specific set of EC-PCH blocks a device monitors once per eDRX cycle. The device determines this specific set of EC-PCH blocks using an algorithm that takes into account its IMSI, its eDRX cycle length and its downlink coverage class.
As discussed in the 3GPP TSG-GERAN Meeting #63 Tdoc GP-140624, entitled “Cellular IoT-PDCH UL Resource Management,” dated Aug. 25-29, 2014 (the contents of which are hereby incorporated herein for all purposes), the GSM Evolution (now referred to as EC-GSM) will use the concept of pre-allocating radio blocks on uplink (UL) EC-Packet Data Traffic Channel (PDTCH) resources in the interest of avoiding Uplink Status Flag (USF) based uplink transmissions for wireless devices operating in extended coverage, and to optimize the energy consumption in the wireless device when in packet transfer mode. The present disclosure describes various ways for improving the allocation of radio resources in wireless communications to address a need associated with the concept of pre-allocating radio blocks or radio resources on the UL EC-PDTCH. In addition, the present disclosure describes various ways for improving the allocation of radio resources in wireless communication to address a need associated with the concept of pre-allocating radio blocks or radio resources on the DL EC-PDTCH.